Our position

We want this investment to continue, and we welcome cross-party support for investing 3% of the UK’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in research and development.

What we're doing

Last year, we spent around £880 million in the UK to support world-leading research.

Strategic institutional support for research

Strategic institutional support is awarded to UK universities by funding councils in each of the four nations. This investment forms part of the UK’s unique dual support system, which provides a mix of block and grant funding to universities.

The funds can be used in a variety of different ways, for example to support interdisciplinary research, career development for academic staff, or the forging of new partnerships.

Reforms to UK scientific research

In April 2017, the Higher Education and Research Act became law. The legislation sets out substantial changes to the structure and governance of UK scientific research and higher education.

We worked closely with parliamentarians and policy makers during the development of the legislation. Now we’ll monitor its implementation, including the establishment of the new UK Research and Innovation body, to make sure it delivers on its promise to:

protect the UK’s dual support system

strengthen support for cross-disciplinary research.

Charity Research Support Fund

We’re working with other medical research charities to make sure that the Charity Research Support Fund (an essential source of government investment that ‘tops-up’ charity funding) is protected and increased in line with recent growth in charity investment.